James Schimmer serves as the Director of Economic Development and Planning for Franklin County, Ohio – the state’s second most populous county and the 33rd largest in the United States. In his role, Mr. Schimmer is responsible for the county’s overall direction in economic development, business recruitment, retention and expansion, planning, zoning, housing, and building services. He supervises a staff of 25 with an annual budget of $19 million. He has held the position since June of 2006.

Schimmer has previously worked as the City of Columbus’ Economic Development Administrator and Downtown Development Manager. He also led the Little Rock Downtown Partnership from 2000-2003 and was involved in the site planning of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Archives.

Academically trained as a geographer with degrees from Slippery Rock State University in Pennsylvania and the University of North Dakota, Mr. Schimmer’s career has spanned more than 20-years leading other economic development programs and downtown development projects in Wheeling, West Virginia; the Howard-Paulina District in Chicago; and Appleton, Wisconsin.

For his work in central Ohio’s regional development and the creation of a “non-pirating” economic developers’ professional creed and an economic development training course for elected public officials known as ED 411, Schimmer has twice been co-recipient of the William Habig Regional Cooperation Award presented by the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. He has served two terms as president of the Mid-Ohio Development Exchange (central Ohio’s professional economic developer’s organization) and was actively involved in the establishment of central Ohio’s lead economic development organization – Columbus 2020.

In addition, James Schimmer is a member of Urban Land Institute’s Columbus Board and currently serves as a board member and treasurer of the Central Ohio Community Improvement Corporation – Franklin County’s land bank. He retains his love of downtown development as a board member and marketing chair of the Capitol Crossroads Special Improvement District in downtown Columbus.

Throughout his career, Mr. Schimmer has employed the practice of adaptively re-using existing resources as the basis for sound economic and community development. James Schimmer lives in Upper Arlington, Ohio with his wife Martha Leonard and their wonder dog, the Pearl of Ohio.